I am in mid-summer '42 of my first PBEM as Japan. I have now captured all the usual significant oil/refinery sites. I have noticed that I have dribs and drabs of fuel all over the Empire, eg. every sh..hole port in PI has at least 1000 fuel. I have not started stockpiling fuel or oil at any location. Should I be stockpiling at major sites? I'm not short at any particular point...yet. Should I be trying to haul these dribs and drabs home? For broader production do I get credit for these dribs and drabs regardless of where they are?

For 'credit', you need to get the fuel and oil to where they can be used to produce HI. Unused, ultimately recaptured fuel gets you bupkis. Same with the oil. That's the ultimate use (well, that and refueling the odd ship or two), so wherever they can be used for that efficiently will suffice.

The home islands, particularly Kyushu, have sufficient oil and fuel to keep their industry running for a bit. But their reserves must be restocked anew or else your HI production will ultimately suffer. If this happens, bad joss on you.

I don't think you want to 'stockpile' per se. But interim ports such as Shanghai, Port Arthur, Manila and Singapore should be floating in excess oil and fuel just waiting to get put on a TK convoy back to the HI. I try to keep my production centers constantly 'dry' and dump in these major (waste-free, large) ports. There is no need to stockpile then. Furthermore, I think stockpiling per se may muck with the inherent overland movement of fuel and oil across the Chinese subcontinent. As I'd just as soon have my 'magic road' working, I won't muck it up with stockpiling orders along the route.

ORIGINAL: pontiouspilot I have noticed that I have dribs and drabs of fuel all over the Empire, eg. every sh..hole port in PI has at least 1000 fuel. I have not started stockpiling fuel or oil at any location. Should I be stockpiling at major sites? I'm not short at any particular point...yet. Should I be trying to haul these dribs and drabs home? For broader production do I get credit for these dribs and drabs regardless of where they are?

Those are automatic emergency fuel storages created depending on the port size (iirc 1000x size) plus TFs based in this port. No need to concern yourself with those since they will automatically replenish from nearby sources if you ship them away. You can even exploit it to your advantage, creating artificial high demand for fuel and thus making it move overland.

ORIGINAL: pontiouspilot I have noticed that I have dribs and drabs of fuel all over the Empire, eg. every sh..hole port in PI has at least 1000 fuel. I have not started stockpiling fuel or oil at any location. Should I be stockpiling at major sites? I'm not short at any particular point...yet. Should I be trying to haul these dribs and drabs home? For broader production do I get credit for these dribs and drabs regardless of where they are?

Those are automatic emergency fuel storages created depending on the port size (iirc 1000x size) plus TFs based in this port. No need to concern yourself with those since they will automatically replenish from nearby sources if you ship them away. You can even exploit it to your advantage, creating artificial high demand for fuel and thus making it move overland.

I don't know how much the IJN has to move small, short-ranged ships from place to place around the empire, but those small stashes of fuel can be critical to keeping them moving on their journey.

If you want to harvest all the dribs and drabs, you have to think how much fuel it will cost you to send a tanker fleet around all those places (which may just draw even more oil/fuel again because you create demand when you load it on ships). Just suck the oil/fuel out of major ports and production centres and the dribs and drabs will mostly flow back to restock there.

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No matter how bad a situation is, you can always make it worse. - Chris Hadfield : An Astronaut's Guide To Life On Earth